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Wednesday, November 03, 2004

And the beat goes on...

...In so many ways.

First, President Bush has been re-elected. Kerry has conceded. He was defeated. Most of the polls were wrong. Zogby is officially nutso. (HT - Kerry Spot)

Second, this dead horse just keeps showing up at my door. The media still cannot control themselves. At the moment of this posting, CNN is still refusing to give Bush Ohio. Even though Kerry has, even though Pennsylvania (been blue since 9:30 last night) is closer than Ohio, even though the numbers just aren't there. Watching Wolf and Co. dance around because they had discovered the color green was a bit much. The fact that Florida stayed in the "Too close to call" column for so long is another sign. Five percentage points with only 4% of the vote outstanding is just too much to overcome. But they waited. How long did they wait for Pennsylvania, the state that is still closer than Ohio, which CNN still hasn't called? About 30 minutes I would guess. They waited longer for Colorado (7 point victory), Nevada (3 point victory), Florida (5 point victory), and Missouri (8 point victory).

We got to hear Dan Rather say fun stuff like, "We want to be the accuracy network." Yes, I did laugh out loud. Or Tom Brokaw say, "The President and his people feel as though they have won, fairly this time...." This time? Or the MSNBC Headline which read, "Four years later voters more deeply divided." Yeah, about that. Deeply divided? Keep these little nuggets in mind:

President Bush:
- Became the first President to be re-elected while gaining seats in the House and Senate since 1936 and the first Republican President since 1924 to be re-elected while re-electing Republican House and Senate majorities.
- Received 57.4 million votes - more than any other candidate in history. He broke President Reagan's 1984 mark of 54.5 million. (96% reporting)
- Increased the popular vote by seven million votes since 2000 - more than twice Clinton's increase from 1992 to 1996.
- Improved his percentage in every state except four (MD, OR, VT and WY). This includes a four percent increase in John Kerry's home state, Massachusetts. (HT -

- The GOP has 55 senators.
- The GOP has over 230 House members.
- There are at least 28 Republican governors, including those of the 4 largest states.
- The majority of state legislators and legislatures are Republican.
- The GOP has just performed miracles, like ousting a Senate caucus leader for the first time since 1952, and getting a Republican senator elected from Louisiana for the first time ever. (HT - Polipundit)

I'll submit that there are those on the polar opposite sides of the political spectrum in this country that will cause acrimony. But do those numbers above suggest that this is a divided country, or at least more divided than during the Reagan or Clinton Administrations? Maybe in the media's wishful thinking, but the vastness of the "Big Red Middle of America" suggests something very different.

I will stop now. Tired head is reaching dangerous levels. Tonight I will sleep long and peacefully.